


in the deep dark woods we are (choices)

by roguefaerie (samidha)



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Schneewittchen | Snow White (Fairy Tale), Snow White - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Trans, Fairy Tale Retellings, Flash Fic, Gen, Mirrors, Nonbinary Character, Retelling, Trans, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 15:44:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15513126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: Their departure is a necessary step on a long road.





	in the deep dark woods we are (choices)

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [trans_positivity_fiction](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/trans_positivity_fiction) collection. 



When Snow was born, this was not their name. They were known as Aleda, the fair. They were so fair, that it was not seen as a thing of beauty, nor perhaps of weakness. It simply was. Aleda would run quickly round corners so as to avoid a great many people who lived in their dwelling and nearby, and preferred the company of animals and themself. 

There was something Aleda could not put their finger on about names and signifiers. Sometimes their face looked like not their face. And so they gave thought to covering all the mirrors they would find on their runs through their dwelling and yet something always stopped them.

Fair as snow. It was something that Aleda reminded themself of when the weight of this word, fair, was too heavy. For it was given to Aleda without an asking. It was given as if with the weight of other people and their expectations.

Aleda would not or could not cast it away, not at first.

They would begin to try, however, when everything changed.

A woman had come to live among them, calling herself Mother with a capital M as a leader among the nuns might and sneering down at Aleda any chance that she could.

It was then as if Aleda had found themself suddenly in a war--a war for their own personhood.

Fair as snow.

Snow, Aleda felt, was soft and cold and pure, the way of their heart in closing against the Mother with nothing but malice for Aleda.

Fair as snow. In fact, fairest, Aleda thought, if it would be possible to become the snow. Whether imagining it in the mirror, out the window, or blanketing the forest floor, it was as their heart was, it was as pure as their own destiny, away.

Simply away.

And so when the anger of the Mother boiled over and it was clear Aleda must find their own way, it was an eventuality long prepared for; it was preferred.

Aleda fled into the forest as the snow fell and took their name upon their shoulders like a cloak: from then on they were Snow, as genderless as a curtain of white.


End file.
